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Category: MPS

Apax Partners LLP announced it has agreed to acquire ECi Software Solutions (Fort Worth, TX) a provider of enterprise resource planning software solutions for small and medium-sized companies in the distribution, field services, building and construction, and manufacturing industries. The sellers are The Carlyle Group, a global asset management and private-equity firm which acquired ECi in March of 2014, and Level Equity. No financial terms were disclosed, but clearly the timing and price were right for the sellers.

Apax is a leading private equity firm headquartered in London and New York that primarily invests in companies across four global sectors of Tech and Telco, Services, Healthcare, and Consumer. The company has investments in 23 companies in the Tech and Telco sector including Exact Software (Delft, The Netherlands), a provider of subscription-based shop management, ERP, accounting, and CRM software for small to mid-size manufacturing companies. Read more »

The pioneers traveled westward to find their future; the same is true for many dealers attending ITEX 2017 in Las Vegas. Dealers here can connect with leaders in the industry on the topic of managed IT services, cloud solutions, managed print, supplies management, service automation, financing, data analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), and much more.

Nearly 300 people attended the keynote session, and dealers visiting the exhibits are eager to learn how to expand their businesses. Unlike the original pioneers, though, dealers don’t have to take arrows in the process of securing their future. They can simply take advantage of all the expertise around them. More to come…

The interest is palpable. Attendees were eager to learn during Jeff Hayes’ keynote.

Following the spring hardware updates, today HP announced a range of solutions and enhancements to their mobile printing and print analytics solutions strategies for business. HP is addressing IT needs and end user expectations with these new solutions that attend to security challenges, cost containment, deployment issues, and device lifecycle management that IT struggles with, while also addressing end user wants such as flexibility and device diversity. Read more »

Today Xerox announced a new set of workflow automation industry solutions in higher education, retail banking, and manufacturing; advancements in personal and office productivity capabilities; as well as ConnectKey innovations aimed at enhancing the managed print services (MPS) offering. Xerox also announced new revenue opportunities, tools, and operational processes for MPS channel partners.

On May 5th, Xerox held a call with industry analysts to discuss the new offerings prior to the official announcement. Mike Feldman (President of Large Enterprise Operations) highlighted the recent financial performance of the company’s document outsourcing business—which includes managed print services (including workflow automation) and centralized print services. Mike noted that in the first quarter, this business experienced one of its best quarters financially. The business, which generates approximately $3 billion in annual revenue, achieved 5.0% year-over-year growth on a constant currency basis. Half of this additional revenue occurred within the larger enterprise customer segment, while the other half stemmed from their indirect channel MPS business.

Back in October 2015, Lexmark announced plans to explore strategic alternatives for its business which many took to mean they were exploring a major move like splitting the company in separate two entities, selling a significant portion of the company, or to sell the entire company as-is. Six months later, Lexmark announced on April 19, 2016 that it entered into a definitive merger agreement with a consortium of investors led by Apex Technology Co., Ltd. (Apex) and PAG Asia Capital (PAG), under which Lexmark will be acquired for $40.50 per share, representing a 30% premium to the price back in October (the day before Lexmark announced they were exploring strategic alternatives). This makes for all-cash transaction value of approximately $3.6 billion, net of cash. Read more »

Waves of Change, Oceans of Opportunity
On March 7th through the 9th industry leaders, exhibitors and dealers gathered in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Florida at the Broward County Convention Center for the ITEX 2016 National Conference and Expo. The show’s theme “Waves of Change, Oceans of Opportunity” was indicative of the expanded role of portfolio diversification and business operations transformation is playing within our industry.

We shall start where all of the great journeys throughout history start, at the very beginning. It was August of 1926 and a group of independent typewriter dealers…What is a typewriter? Google it Millennials, I don’t have time to draw you a picture. Where was I? Oh yes…

It was August of 1926 and a group of independent typewriter dealers gathered in Kansas City, Missouri, to form an association that would one day become the Business Technology Association. By 1933, the Association had grown so much that it was decided a name change was needed. The National Association of Typewriter Dealers became the National Typewriter and Office Machine Dealers Association (NTOMDA), a decade later in 1943; it became the National Office Machine Dealers Association (NOMDA). Fun fact, new products announced in the September issue of the NOMDA NEWS in 1948 included such items as:

The Tape Recorder — a compact, magnetic tape recording and playback machine designed for non-professional use.

The Wire Recorder — a new, portable, low-priced model. The combination phonograph/wire recorder reproducer claimed to have 12 essential features of sound reproduction.

The Photo Copy Duplicator — designed to produce letter- and legal-sized exact facsimiles of anything written, typed, printed, drawn or photographed in a matter of minutes. Claimed to produce more than 30 finished copies an hour at about five cents per copy. Portable. Had a self-contained darkroom.

Fast forward to present day, the Business Technology Association (BTA), led by Executive Director Brent Hoskins and a Board of Directors made up of independent dealers/entrepreneurs, serves office technology dealerships, resellers, manufacturers, distributors and service companies. Its core members — office technology companies — consult, provide services such as managed print services, managed IT services and sell hardware, software and supplies with the primary goal of helping businesses optimize business information workflow. Through the association’s various educational programs, information, research, legal services, publications and guidance, BTA member dealerships are positioned to be the premier source of the office technology used by businesses throughout the United States every day. Bottom line, this association is about dealers helping dealers.

Business Support Services – Including our very own InfoTrends Ask the Analyst service (alright, alright, that will be my last shameless plug)

Discount Programs

Insurance Programs

Education

BTA Scholarships – These scholarships are awarded to children of dealers & the children of their full-time employees.

BTA Navigator Program

Volume Purchasing Agreements

In addition to all of these fabulous benefits, the BTA holds five District Events per year (I know I said no more shameless plugs but this one isn’t about me, thus it doesn’t qualify as shameless), in the West, East, Southeast (traditionally one in first quarter and the annual Fall Colors event in North Carolina) and the Mid-America event. This year the Mid-America event will be held in BTA’s home city of Kansas City, Missouri, on June 8th thru June 10th to celebrate the association’s 90th Anniversary. These events feature industry leaders, networking opportunities, educational sessions and opportunities for exhibitors to meet one-on-one with attendees.

So, let’s go back to the beginning. Founded in 1926…let that soak in for a moment people…founded in 1926!!! Another fun fact, did you know that of the Fortune 500 firms in 1955 vs. 2014; 88% are gone? Gone people, gone! My Peeps at BTA have been diligently serving the independent dealer community since 1926!!! And…AND…they all still look great! Valerie, Teresa, Mary and Elizabeth, they don’t look a day over 30! Brent and Brian…well, let’s just say they look great for 90 and we’ll leave it at that. 🙂

If you are already a member of the BTA you know first-hand all of the great work this group of individuals on the staff do for you on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and the contribution made by the association to our industry throughout its proud history. If you are not a member, pick up the phone or email this man, Brian K. Smith, listed below and join today! I promise you, if you invest the time to maximize even a fraction of the benefits I listed, it’s worth every penny. And again, the pennies, work out to be like $1.18 a day!

Congratulations to the entire staff at BTA and the countless volunteers, who are too many to name in this blog, for your many hours of hard work making the association successful. A special shout out to Brent Hoskins for his dedication to and stewardship of the association. Last fun fact, Brent also doubles as editor of Office Technology magazine. So when he retires, the Board will have to hire two people to back-fill him; good luck with that. Brent is someone I both personally and professionally have a tremendous amount of respect for and is also someone I believe could be the nicest person on the planet. Much continued success to the Business Technology Association in 2016 and here’s to the next 90 years of dealers helping dealers!

Xerox, a leader in document technology and services, today announced several new solutions and services that will add to their history of innovation. Xerox’s Large Enterprise Operations (LEO) is aligning its services offering by key vertical market to connect MPS & BPO. Read more »

This year at the annual LegalTech show held Feb. 3-5at the New York City Hilton Midtown, over 100 exhibitors shared the tradeshow floor to demonstrate and display their robust technology geared to help law firms and legal professionals optimize their businesses and workflows. One of the most exciting announcements of the show was Ricoh’s newest offering that they are temporarily calling “Legal MFP”, a platform that can be used on select Ricoh MFP devices to improve end-user workflow while enhancing operational efficiencies, and lowering costs. Read more »

At its Second Anniversary Event, Canon Solutions America (CSA)unveiled the name change of its Business Services Division to Enterprise Managed Services Division (EMS). VP of Enterprise Services and Solutions, John Reilly, and VP of Managed Services, Valerie Belli, gave the presentation detailing the rebranded division.